South Korean Financial Services Commission Reiterates its Hard Stance on ICO’s and Crypto

The head of Korea’s Financial Services Commission Choi Jong-Koo has reiterated his negative stance on digital currencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), according to an October 11 report by Business Korea. The chairman of Korea’s top financial commission spoke at a parliamentary audit session of the commission held at the National Assembly. South Korea’s stance on digital currencies has been so negative to the point where they outlawed ICOs in September last year since, in their opinion, that way of raising funds was “almost a gamble.” This August, South Korean legislators, including participants from government ministries, revisited the issue with digital currencies, focusing on reviewing the country’s ICO ban. Lawmakers agreed on the need to develop a related policy before carrying a resolution on ICO allowance.

At the recent meeting, the world bank chief expressed that the government did not oppose the notion that the blockchain industry had a lot of potential but added that it did not equate the crypto trading business with the blockchain business. The head of Korea’s Financial Services Commission Choi Jong-Koo said, “Many people say the Korean government should allow ICOs, but ICOs bring uncertainty and the damage they can cause is too serious and obvious. For these reasons, many foreign countries ban ICOs or are conservative towards them.”

Choi also spoke of the criticism that the country’s commercial bank had been receiving for not serving crypto exchanges, stating that exchanges should be able to persuade banks to set up accounts with them” other officials indicated that the South Korean government would soon issue a statement on its position on ICOs. One such official is the Chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Hong Nam-ki, who said that the government would announce its position once discussions are finalized and government survey results are received.

Hong Nam-ki told Korean business publication, the Investor, that the government of South Korea had launched a survey of blockchain companies in order to collect their views on the current legal framework regarding the blockchain and crypto. Just last month, South Korean cabinet ministers agreed to exclude all sale and brokerage of digital assets based on blockchain technology from venture business classification. This move was reportedly made in order to “strengthen the cooperation of related institutions” and to protect citizens from the “illegal activities” related to the digital assets business. In a lot of quarters, this makes perfect sense owing to the numerous case of crypto jacking that has been reported this year.